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51: Summer 2010
New Guild contract in place
Fall picnic
Grievances settled for laid-off
staffers
Extra pay period hides executives'
salary cut
News in brief
Seven staffers win Press Club awards
A new contract, a new beginning
New Guild contract in place
More than two years and three Bargaining Committee chairs after negotiations began, the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild finally has a new contract with Journal Sentinel Inc.
Guild members ratified the pact May 27, by a vote of 54-10, and union and management representatives signed it June 7.
The agreement, which runs through 2011, preserves several key protections from previous contracts, including our severance and notice pay in case of downsizings and our cap on the percentage of health care costs we must pay. A new provision requires the company to offer buyouts before layoffs.
But the company gains more control over whom to lay off -- with less regard for seniority -- and over how our benefits are structured.
The contract also keeps much of our previous wage and differential structure in place, and outlines how -- but not exactly when -- our wages would be restored to where they were before last year's 6.6% pay cut.
In short, it's a contract that falls short of what many of us had hoped for, but that is nonetheless the best our Bargaining Committee believed we could get, and in some ways better than some of the others we're seeing at other Guild locals across the country.
Here are the key details of the agreement:
Job security: The two-weeks-per-year-of- service severance pay and the required 60-day notice for layoffs remain unchanged. At least two weeks before issuing that notice, the company would be required to announce a layoff target and offer a buyout on terms at least as favorable as the contractually required severance; each person accepted for the buyout would reduce by one the number to be laid off.
Instead of the previous requirement to lay people off primarily in order of reverse seniority, with some exceptions, the company would base layoff decisions on a combination of factors -- such as skills and diversity -- but seniority would be the deciding factor if everything else is equal.
Wages: If wage cuts are partly rolled back for non-union Journal Sentinel employees, we would get a proportional wage restoration across the board. The contract doesn't change our pay scales, wage structure, differentials, overtime, turnaround or mileage provisions.
A small number of newsroom workers will receive raises as a result of the contract. That's the group who were due to move up on the pay scale but were frozen at their previous wage level while negotiations were going on.
Because of the 6.6% wage cut, those individuals will move up to 93.4% of the minimum rate for their new pay steps. The same principle will apply to anyone who moves up the pay scale in the future, until and unless our wages are restored to their previous level.
Benefits: Our health care, sick leave, pensions, 401(k)s and tuition reimbursement will all be the same as what the company offers its non-union employees, with no contractual prohibition against changing or even eliminating benefits. However, the company's share of health care premiums cannot drop below 65%.
Time off: We will get five personal days this year, down from 10 last year. Unchanged are vacation, holiday, family leave, funeral leave and jury duty leave provisions.
Including 2009, this is a three-year contract, our shortest since the 1989-'92 pact. That means bargaining will start again less than a year after this contract was signed -- something that hasn't happened since our first contract, which was only a one-year deal. At 25 months from the start of preliminary talks in May 2008 to signing in June, these were the longest negotiations in our local's 26-year history.
The full text of the new contract has been posted on our website and can be printed from there. We also have e-mailed copies to all dues-paying members. Paper copies will be posted on Guild bulletin boards and distributed to union representatives.
Signing for the Guild were bargaining chair Larry Sandler, President Greg Pearson, bargaining committee members Amy Rinard and Tom Silverstein, and 2nd Vice President Karen Samelson. Signing for the company were Marilyn Krause, assistant managing editor/administration, and Cindy Wargula, employee relations specialist.
Fall picnic
Save the date: We had so much fun last year, the Guild is holding another picnic on Sunday, Sept. 12, from noon to 4 p.m. at Gordon Park at N. Humboldt Blvd. and E. Locust St. See Jan Uebelherr if you’d like to help out.
Grievances settled for laid-off staffers
On March 27, Emmett Prosser returned to the newsroom, working as an online producer.
Some of us may not have even noticed, but this was an important development.
Prosser was one of the 35 people who were notified Aug. 4 that they were losing their jobs.
Journal Sentinel Inc. took this action after a buyout that saw 37 other newsroom employees decide to leave, including 32 who were represented by Local 51.
The Guild filed grievances on behalf of Prosser and 18 other employees who were laid off despite being higher ranking in seniority than others who were retained.
The other 16 cases were not pursued, mostly because those employees were low in seniority.
After Prosser’s grievance was denied, the Guild filed for arbitration. Before we got to an arbitration hearing, the company offered Prosser his job back. It is the first time since the merger that a laid-off employee has won his job back.
Fifteen of the other employees involved in the grievances have reached settlements with the company. Three others have reached tentative agreements.
The Guild has provided advice and worked with these former employees in resolving their cases. Much of this work was done with a huge assist from Darren Carroll, our representative from the Guild international.
Extra pay period hides executives' salary cut
A quirk in payroll dates left a misleading appearance that top executives’ pay was barely reduced, when in fact they took their share of the wage cut, Journal Sentinel Publisher Betsy Brenner has told the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild.
Last year, the company announced wages were frozen for all non-represented employees for the first quarter of 2009, then sliced 6%, starting in April. Our union voted to take a 6.6% cut, starting in May.
At first glance, it would seem that a 6% cut for about three-quarters of the year should translate into roughly a 4.5% reduction in annual pay from 2008 to 2009. Yet when the actual wages of top executives were printed in the Journal Communications Inc. proxy statement, the 2009 base pay for Brenner and CEO Steve Smith was down just 0.3% from their 2008 salaries.
After several of our members noticed the discrepancy, the Guild asked Brenner for an explanation.
In her response, Brenner explained that 2009 was an unusual year because the payroll schedule resulted in 27 biweekly paychecks, rather than 26; the year’s first paycheck arrived on Jan. 2 and the last on Dec. 31. Of those 27 paychecks, she said, the first eight were at the frozen 2008 level and the next 19 were at the reduced level, she said. The extra pay period “appears to cloud the year-over- year comparison,” she noted, before walking through the math on her own salary to demonstrate the impact.
Brenner concluded by adding, “We appreciate the dedication and sacrifices that our Newspaper Guild employees have shared with other Journal Communications employees.”
News in brief
Company reimburses health care overcharges
About 100 current and former members of our bargaining unit recently received reimbursements for overcharges in health care coverage.
During the recent contract talks, Journal Sentinel Inc. managers determined that they had not met their obligation for the amount the company paid in health care coverage under the old contract. Our contract sets a minimum percentage of health care premiums for the company to pick up.
The reimbursements were paid out to non- tobacco users who were in the Standard plan in 2008-’09 and/or 2009-’10.
A total of 99 people were reimbursed for 2008-’09. Twenty-eight were reimbursed for 2009-’10. A number of people were reimbursed for both years.
Reimbursements ranged from $100 for single-person coverage in 2008-’09 to $664 for family coverage in 2009-’10.
Tuition reimbursement grievance settled
The Guild and Journal Sentinel Inc. have agreed to settle our grievance over the company’s suspension of the tuition reimbursement program.
Under the old contract, the terms of the program were clearly defined, and the company did not bargain with us when it sought to suspend the program last year. Members of our bargaining unit who were already attending classes were reimbursed through the spring semester.
We filed the grievance when a newsroom staffer was turned down for reimbursement for fall semester tuition.
The settlement provided a cash payout to any newsroom staffer who was turned down for tuition reimbursement, starting last fall.
Seven staffers win Press Club awards
A number of members of Local 51 were winners in this year’s Milwaukee Press Club contest.
The Guild sponsors one entry per member in the competition.
This year’s winners were:
Paul A. Smith, first place, best single feature story over 30 inches, “It’s Showtime for this Songbird.”
Alison Sherwood, second place, best innovative feature, “Michael Lock’s Milwaukee.”
Rick Wood, second place, best news photograph, “Windy City Blown Away.”
Erin Richards, second place, best multi-story coverage of a single news topic or event, “Beyond the Bell: Making the School-Home Connection.”
Karen Herzog, second place, best beat coverage, “Wisconsin Eats.”
Greg A. Bedard, second place, best sports story, “It Can’t Be Worse.”
James E. Causey, second place, best topical column.
A new contract, a new beginning
 |
| Greg Pearson |
Congratulations.
You’ve survived a 14-month period that’s included a 6.6% pay cut, the loss of close to 80 newsroom jobs and protracted contract talks that started in 2008.
Are there signs of optimism in the months ahead? We hope so.
Guild members voted May 27 to approve a contract that will carry us through the end of 2011. The new contract was signed June 7 and is now in effect.
Is this the best deal the Guild has ever negotiated? Hardly. There are no built-in pay raises, and we agreed to wording that weakens our seniority language.
But the contract retains the severance package that requires a 60-day notice of layoffs and a payout of two weeks per year of service. Our members told us retaining this language was a priority heading into these negotiations. In addition, the new contract includes language requiring the company to offer a buyout before there are any layoffs.
These may seem like small issues to some, and no one is completely thrilled with a contract that has no set pay raises. But these were harsh times in which to be negotiating, and the Bargaining Committee walked away from these negotiations feeling as if it was the best deal we were going to get in this era of the shrinking newspaper.
We all should give a pat on the back to Larry Sandler, our hard-working Bargaining Committee chairman, as well as those who helped with negotiations, including Tom Silverstein, Karen Samelson and former Guild President Amy Rinard.
There are other signs of hope. Our sections seem to have a few more ads these days, always a good thing.
The company’s latest earnings report showed better numbers than we’ve seen in a while. Of course, those numbers reflect the new reality of a smaller newsroom that no longer has many of our past co-workers.
But, that’s the reality we all face these days.
Here’s hoping the sacrifices of the past 14 months see a continued turnaround in the months ahead — and a restoration of some of those lost wages we’ve all felt since the 2009 pay cut.